The present invention is generally related to electrical or electromechanical devices, and, more particularly, to apparatus and techniques for securely affixing components in such devices to avoid bangingly shaking of any components therein in the presence of vibration events.
Electrical or electromechanical devices, e.g., modular devices, used in equipment subject to vibration, such as may be used in automotive, aerospace, and other industrial applications, need to be carefully designed to be substantially unaffected when exposed to any such vibration. For example, these devices may include one or more components, such as electronic, sensor and actuator components. During vibration conditions, some of these components have a tendency to shake, bang or rattle against proximate structures. These vibration-induced-effects could eventually cause these components to have high failure rates, which can result in undesirable and costly down time of the equipment using the device.
More particularly, it would be desirable to avoid such vibration-induced effects (e.g., shaking, rattling, banging, etc.) between an actuator that may be assembled in a bore of a coil device. As suggested above, the shaking, rattling, banging, etc., occurs when the device is vibrated. The coil device is generally made up of a plastic spool wrapped with wire. The vibration causes the entire coil to rapidly jiggle or shake back and forth. Thus, the walls that define the bore of the winding device may uncontrollably impact the actuator surrounded by such walls. The inertia of the coil device could result in an impact large enough to catastrophically damage the actuator or prematurely reduce its performance.
Unfortunately, prior to the present invention, some possible techniques which have tried to address the vulnerability of the components to vibration-induced effects and eventual wear-out have fallen short. For example, previous designs attempted to reduce the vibration-induced effects by tightening the tolerances between the inner diameter of the coil and the outer diameter of the actuator. Unfortunately, such known technique is unable to economically create an appropriate interference fit, thus leaving some room for movement between the affected components.
Thus, it is desirable to provide affixing technique and structure that, at a low-cost, reliably avoids the foregoing issues. It would be further desirable to provide affixing technique and structure that would result in an appropriate interference fit between the affected components and avoid the undesirable vibration-induced effects.